Biking the TransAm through Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas - sure does not look like a rec

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Biking the TransAm through Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas - sure does not look like a recovering economy

We are finding lots of the motels/minimarts listed on the maps are closed. Many downtowns (which clearly were gorgeous back in the day) are mostly ghosttowns now.

We just got back from walking over to a mall to see if we could find a bookstore - almost 2/3rds of the stores were closed. And even tho it was lunchtime (summer) there were maybe 20 - 30 people shopping, including us?

We still have some Barnes and Noble stores left in metro Detroit. They closed the Royal Oak store, but they were stupid to put a store there to begin with-there was already one about 6 miles away. The other one has a parking lot, downtown Royal Oak is all paid parking.

We have the most awesome used book store in the midwest-John King books in downtown Detroit. It is a 4 story warehouse full of books. They buy from estate sales and libraries, which gives them a really unique selection of books. I've found antique poetry books, cheap library versions of Shakespeare plays, antique post cards-it's not somewhere to go on a hot day, though, as there is no a/c on the upper floors.

Grand Rapids still has their local bookstore-Schuler books. They also have Baker Books, which is a large Christian bookstore (and publisher), that also has a used book section.

I still miss Borders, though. They were our local bookstore around here. They got too big too fast.

B & N closed 2 of its 4 stores fairly near me. One was replaced by a Sports Basement (a local chain, sort of like Costco for sports equipment), which also took over adjacent space that had been a Blockbuster (and more or less unused since it closed). The other closed store, the mall did some significant remodelling, and I haven't looked to see what's in its place.